#a:tla one shot

[jinkopolls]

Unearthed my embarrassing ancient Picrews of Jinko, Jin and some other one-shot A:tLA girls. Unfortunately one doesn't have a signature on it.

[three-semicolons]

I wish this fandom cared more about Aang.

I love every single character in A:TLA. In fact, I don’t think I have a favorite or least favorite character because all are balanced so well. But there are floods of video essays about Toph, Katara, Sokka, and god forbid even mentioning one or the members of the Fire Nation royal family. If anything, Zuko’s character has begun to grate on me over the years because he’s just so… overdone. Like a rich 3-star Michelin meal eaten over and over and over again until your arteries turn to butter emulsions and you just want a salad.

The exception is Aang. Fanart of him is by far the least prominent — especially when excluding group shots and romantic scenes. Searching for video essays, it wasn’t just that there were few; there were none. The only content I could find exclusively about his arc was a critique of the finale.

And on that note, it’s exclusively Aang’s flaws that are fixated on while others go forgiven, and all of the most fascinating parts of his character are either cast aside or given to another person entirely. Aang is childish and hesitant and matured and humbled. He’s haunted by the weight of his title and the guilt surrounding the genocide of his people (which, hot take, is by far the most tragic backstory in my opinion, but at the levels of trauma these characters have experienced, comparison becomes pretty irrelevant), and yet throughout the series finds the strength to assume his role with the support of those he loves.

For a fandom that produces ten “gaang-reacts-to-the-pretty-obvious-origins-of-zukos-scar” fics every day and half a dozen other explorations of characters’ trauma a week, how come the burden of expectations on the boy whose culture was eradicated by his failures is left so unexplored? How come nobody cares?

Idk. I’m not upset that any other character is getting love. I love Zuko and Katara and Sokka and Toph and Azula and Ty Lee and every one else so, so much. But I love Aang too, and it upsets me that I’m seemingly so alone in this.

It occurs to me in retrospect that this may partially be due to shipping. Ive always disliked romance in fiction and Avatar’s is no exception. It makes a lot of the relationship content unrelatable, but that’s perhaps the greatest portion of ATLA fandom output. Seeing as Aang is a literal child and not much of a “stud” by most standards, I understand why the various edgy 2008 emo kids got all the hype. I get it. But it makes me sad regardless that such a shallow interpretation of media has been allowed to dominate so much.

I’ll probably make more posts like this but I’m done for now. I made this blog just to vent my frustrations in the ether. Man, I’m bummed.

[fieldsofview]

20 Questions (for fanfic writers)

I got tagged by the absolutely lovely @sarah-sandwich Thank you!!

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

17 :)

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

157,867 (2/3 of that is SMH hahaha)

3. what fandoms do you write for?

atm all my WIPs and upcoming fic ideas are Spidey related, but I used to write a lot for MLB and OL:BA (and A:TLA back on ffn in hs but we don't talk about the dark ages hahaha)

4. top five fics by kudos:

Under The Moonlight - OL:BA smutty oneshot of what should have happened after the charity ball scene 😳

Crushtomer - MLB coffee shop AU one-shot with Barista!Adrien and Overworked Uni Student!Marinette (heavily inspired by my barista days in College, when I was writing this) ☕

King Agreste - a MLB AU oneshot inspired by the Grimm fairy tale Allerleirauh "all-kinds-of-fur" 🏰

You Said You Loved Me - an MLB kwami swap identity reveal wip i never finished and probably never will sorry 😬

Spider-Man: Homesickness - My take on what the MCU Spidey's life could be like 5 years post: No Way Home and his journey into letting people back into his life and not being so alone (My CURRENT BABY and WIP that I'm ALMOST DONE WITH - it's so fucking long alskdhasasjdkhksdjhfkfh my hope is that it ends up in the no. 1 spot someday when it's complete) 🕸️

5. do you respond to comments?

So I didn't always, but nowadays I try really hard to respond to every comment thread at least, even if I don't always have the last comment on the thread. I really REALLY appreciate each and every comment and I actually often re-read them when I'm feeling insecure in my writing (is that cringe? maybe lol but it's true)

6. what is the fic your wrote with the angstiest ending?

Definitely The Beauty of Green. 268-word OL: BA drabble that smacks you out of nowhere in the last two sentences. I never write things that short anymore but it just worked

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

A lot of my one-shots back when I was writing for MLB like 5 years ago have happy endings. I prefer more *complicated* endings now, but a genuinely happy ending can be nice too. May I present Drops in a Pond for consideration though? Not traditionally fluffy or sweet, but I like to think it's a soft and hopeful kind of ending.

8. do you get hate on fics?

I haven't yet. I think I'm too small of a creator to get hate lol

9. do you write smut?

I've posted one smut fic before, Under the Moonlight, listed above. It's my top-rated fic so I guess I know a little of what I'm doing. OH and my side-wip I'm working on when SMH is too angsty for me is all fluff and kinky Parkner smut and I'm so excited to post that someday when SMH is fully out and done.

10. craziest crossover:

I haven't written any crossovers, unless you count pulling from marvel canon across different adaptations to make SMH (it's got Gwen and Harry and Miles even though they're not in the MCU 19999 as of now). But I used to write a lot of aus

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I would be so honored if someone did! I once had a full conversation in the comments with someone in another language by using Google Translate and that was fun!

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

I think my writing process would be a little too unconventional to co-write with someone unless we were trading chapters and perspectives. I go back and edit my drafts a lot as I move forward and I would be too tempted to edit their writing too, which feels mean...

14. all time favorite ship?

I LITERALLY CAN NOT PICK DO NOT DO THIS TO ME!!!!! I will be a multi-shipper until the day I die, in basically every fandom.

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have an idea for a series of long fics making an MCU HS AU inspired by Degrassi, but I think it would be just too many hours and too many words that I won't ever commit to. I love a good HS AU every now and again, but I feel like a lot of people (across fandoms with hs aus tbh) write the characters as if they already have a lot of the canon quirks the characters have as adults. I would want to write them truly as their HS selves, acting like real teenagers and all the dumb shit teens do, as the reader follows along on the journey of their growing up.

16. what are your writing strengths?

I think I really like detail and trying to portray a level of reality with the characters, even in more fantastical settings. I want the character's choices and motivations to be both complex and clear to the reader, even when they're making choices that the reader disagrees with. I also think this is a skill that is more and more prevalent in my recent writing, so my earlier MLB stuff doesn't have as much of it. My OLBA stuff and now my Spidey stuff though? Yeah.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Staying motivated to finish WIPS. (This is something I've improved a lot on though and at this point, barring some kind of life-or-death calamity in my life, I will absolutely be finishing SMH. I'm literally 120k of a predicted 150k words deep and going strong sooo).

OH ALSO comedy! I'm so bad at writing funny characters and making them actually say things that are both funny and make sense. Sucks when writing Spidey cause he can be such a little shit with his sarcastic comments and each dialogue point takes me 3-5 business weeks to come up with.

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I do it very rarely and only when it feels 100% necessary. I had a small bit in Spanish in ch 6 of SMH because Jeff and Rio were literally talking about Peter right in front of him and he could hear the words they were saying, even if he didn't understand them. But it was very brief.

I did it because the POV character literally didn't understand it, so it made sense to have it written out. In fics where the POV character understands what's being said, I prefer it all be written in the fic's primary language, for reader ease.

19. first fandom you wrote in?

A:TLA, like I said. That was back in the dark ages of my Junior Year of HS on my old ffn account that will never see the light of day again hahaha

20. favorite fic you've written?

Every current WIP has always been my favorite because that is what I'm thinking about. So SMH is definitely my current fave. It's my baby and I've put literally hundreds of hours into it (I keep a spreadsheet lol, it's nearly 150 hours of sheer writing, not including the early days of brainstorming and outlining.)

HOWEVER, back in the day, I was really proud of writing Answer Me and it's literally my lowest-rated fic, but I was such a fan of the genre and the Night Circus inspiration. Plus, I love Alya as a character and it was really fun to write from her perspective.

OH, and I'm still proud of Under the Moonlight because it taught me that my acespec ass can write smut and is also good at it, lol. I just have to write smut that's rooted in ~*~feelings~*~ and also has an element of humanism and imperfection. Which is the type of vibe I'm putting into my side-wip rn.

Thanks for tagging me, Sarah!

no pressure tagging: @seek--rest, @abcd-em, @missamyshay, @pbpsbff

[nachtwaechterin]

20 questions for fanfic writers tagged by @kittyphoenix12-xx. Thanks for the tag!!!

How many works do you have on AO3?

22 across four pseudonyms!

What's your total AO3 word count?

251,426 as of November 3rd, 2023

What fandoms do you write for?

Across my fandoms, there are fics for BotW, A:tLA, BBC Merlin and now the MCU. I'm currently only writing MCU fic tho!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

A Spider on the Web (1,077 kudos, MCU, Parkner)

The Scientific Method (246 kudos, MCU, Parkner)

Spidery Thoughts (136 kudos, MCU, Parkner)

How To Train Your Dragon Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (120 kudos, MCU)

Druids and Destinies (117 kudos, BBC Merlin)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! Because comments make me happy and I wanna engage with my readers (which is also why I have a Discord server for my fics)

If I don't respond, it's probably because it's a longer thread in which I've replied before and I simply don't know what to say.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't do angsty endings. Or, well, I do at the end of a work but usually those have sequels with happier endings. The worst I'm gonna do is bittersweet. But if we allow angsty endings with sequels that have happy endings, The Way of the Sword (A:tLA) will fit best!

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

All of them tbh!!! Or so many of them. I will say Coffee and Chamomile (MCU, Parkner) though because the overall vibe is also very fluffy.

Do you get hate on fics?

I haven't yet!

Do you write smut?

I do! Mostly as an exploration of my own sexuality since I did struggle to accept my cupiosexuality for years. There's It Turns Out Asexuals CAN Want Sex (MCU, Parkner), and the rewrite of The Scientific Method will get a smut one-shot. I might also write some for Glowing in the Dark (MCU, Parkner) tbh.

Do you write crossovers?

I had ideas but nope! Idk, it's difficult for me to write for me in more than one fandom at a time, and this just ties into it.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Do my own abandoned translations count? If so, then yes.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I tried but I feel like co-writing is kinda difficult for me because of the increased pressure. A one-shot or short story is probably fine but anything more than that is just. Idk. My brain does Not Like It.

What's your all-time favorite ship to write for?

Tbh that changes depending on the fandom im in currently! It's Harley Keener/Peter Parker aka Parkner (MCU).

What's A WIP that you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

All of the ones in the fandoms I fell out of tbh.

What are your writing strengths?

I think writing emotions!!! I'm just projecting my own experiences and trauma and I think that gives them a lot of depth and makes them pretty realistic!

What are your writing weaknesses?

I can't keep anything short. I just ramble on and on and on and on and on and—

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I italicize and use a tooltip workskin so that if you hover over it you can see the translation! (or click on it, if you're using mobile)

For sign language, I haven't figured that one out. I probably won't use ASL grammar bc I simply do not know ASL (tho I do aspire to learn sign language from the country I live) and also bc I heard that can make it harder to read. I might put in italics, might not, idk. I'll see when I'll have to use it!

First fandom you wrote for?

Prinzessin Lillifee (a German book series/magazine about a fairy, often featuring her unicorn and animal friends. I used to spend so much money on the magazines and I'm pretty sure I had an audiobook! Prinzessin Lillifee fanfic was actually what got me into writing, and ironically I wrote one-shots for it.

Favorite fic you've written?

That is so difficult to answer. Probably A Spider on the Web and It Turns Out Asexuals CAN Want Sex. And Glowing in the Dark (MCU, Parkner).

I'm tagging @the-writing-merlin, @chaosisorderao3, @pbpsbff, @graham-cracker-guillotine, and whoever else wants!

List of questions under the cut for ease of copy-pasting.

How many works do you have on AO3?

What's your total AO3 word count?

What fandoms do you write for?

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Do you get hate on fics?

Do you write smut?

Do you write crossovers?

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

What's your all-time favorite ship to write for?

What's A WIP that you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

What are your writing strengths?

What are your writing weaknesses?

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

First fandom you wrote for?

Favorite fic you've written?

[goodvein]

Avatar: The Last Airbender (cartoon)

One of the best stories ever told - period - end of sentence.

And one constantly beset by terrible spin-offs and knock-offs, and something the producers could not replicate in subsequent shows, INCLUDING their own sequel.

The show has absolutely brilliant worldbuilding, until the retcons in their own sequel show.

In the Avatar world, there are 4 main races, each named after the four Indian elements: Earth, Fire, Wind, Water.

Rather than being token aspects, the differences come down to deep philosophical differences, to the point that the world views might not be reconcilable. The Earth Kingdom is Imperial China. They value stability above all else, and as such it is exactly what they have.

The Water Tribes are a combination of Inuit with coastal China. They are fluid and free flowing, and the thing they value the most is love, (both platonic and romantic). Their deep love is what holds them together as they sail the roiling seas.

The Air Nomads value freedom, to the point they don't raise their own children. They travel the world, never having a home, but never wanting one either.

The more spiritual members of each nation gain the Bender of their element. This has them manipulate the energies of their bodies, (i.e. moving their bodies themselves), to manipulate the elements around them.

But, of course, it's a wide world. Every - single - village they come across has their own culture. They have their own laws, their own customs, their own clothing. And a third of the story is just having them explore their world. Their life is one of adventure. Literally. They spend as much time exploring their wonderful world as they do on character development as they do on the primary plot.

While the story was intended to be watchable by children, it contains a great number of heavy, thick, and deep themes, such as genocide, filial piety, and uncontrollable power. Sometimes the right answer is military force. Sometimes the power of diplomacy is what is needed. Sometimes it's trust, in others, or yourself.

The main characters are wonderful, loveable, flawed, and dynamic.

As are the villains.

As are many of the background characters, some of which became absolutely iconic.

For anyone who's seen the show: "MY CABBAGES!"

A:tLA is one of the shows where your favourite character might be a one or two shot character, and this is not in any way an insult to the main characters. This is because even one-shot characters are often done with as much love and affection as the main characters are.

All of the background writing is done in Chinese, by expert calligraphers. The martial arts are impeccably researched, beautiful, intrinsic, and true. The stories are epic and adventurous. The characters, big and small, beautiful, loving, and flawed, to the point you want to them.

An uncle of one of the main characters provides life advice that many fans return to in times of need.

That said, the sequel series is at best, petulant, the comics are femslash fanfiction, the M. Night Shyamalan movie is horrifying, but he actually improved it, the live action remake removes pesky things like worldbuilding, character development, and... honestly, fun. And The Dragon Prince, made with a lot of the same productions staff, is a completely hollow world that has world building that would have caused a bloody civil war before the show even started.

Well, lightning cannot strike twice.

[sushigal007]

Wrote a little one-shot AU spin-off for my A:tLA/Doctor Who fic that involved a lot more of the DW side of things (unpublished, it'll go up when I reach that part in the main story), and now I kinda want to write another crossover where freshly burned and banished Zuko stumbles upon Two's TARDIS, but I simply cannot decide if I want a simple Zuko travelling with Two, Jamie and Zoe story until the Time Lords send them home, but don't realise they're sending Zuko home noticeably older and scar-free and full of memories because they just assumed he was the same sort of human as everyone else, or if I want Zoe to know exactly who he is at once because she's from the 21st century and oops, they must have fucked up something in the Land Of Fiction. 'Cause like, the second one would be AU of both and therefore more interesting, but also I'm imagining Zuko in The Seeds of Death and the Doctor going "the Ice Warriors hate heat." And Zuko going "oh, why didn't you say so?" and just firebends them off the moon three episodes early.

[the-13th-battalion]

fic stats game

Rules: Give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most bookmarks, fourth most comments, fifth most words, and your fic with the least amount of words.

aaaa thank you @indigostars !!!!!

fic with the most hits: The Warmth of My Heart which was my first Avatar: The Last Airbender fic!! I literally can't believe this thing as 13,000+ hits ahsghdgdgdjdhd that's A LOT OF PEOPLE!!! all I did was give Zuko a hug lol!!!! I mean he deserves it and I guess we all agree :3

fic with second most kudos: The Things That Bind Us, another one of my A:TLA fics! Some parts of this I wish I had done a little better but honestly it was three years ago in the height of the atla renaissance and I was still fairly new to AO3, so 2020 me gets a gold star!! Zuko and Toph friendship for the WIN!!!

fic with third most bookmarks: To Light and Guard, my Star Wars "Anakin is a Jedi Healer" AU!!! Omg I fantasize about finishing this fic :')))) I miss working on it. This was so important to me and creating it kept me going through some rough times. Maybe someday.....

fic with the fourth most comments: Hold Onto Me, a Clone Wars Zygerria aftermath angst fic!!!! Man I hated this when I wrote it but honestly it's probably my fave TCW fic!! I love putting Anakin and Obi-Wan through the horrors hehe

fic with the fifth amount of words: flashpoint, my refurbished A:TLA AU fic where Azula makes different choices. I was going to make that a long fic and go through the plot of the show, but I like it more as a one shot! Azula is an awesome character and I had fun seeing what other choices she might have made!!

fic with the least amount of words: say that we'll be together, a Clone Wars fic about the episode "Lawless" (aka MAJOR OOF!!!) I actually forgot I wrote this until now?? That episode hurt so much and I apparently liked to make it hurt more lmao.

I find it a little ironic that none of my anime fandoms made it on here, despite having almost as many fics for My Hero Academia as I do for Star Wars! Plus, the Trigun fandom is a busy place! I did enjoy revisiting all these fics :')))

chill tags for @starkskypines @skywalker-tano-kenobi and anyone else who wants to jump in!!

[ahatersguidetoatla]

S1E1: "The Boy In The Iceberg"

You might be wondering why I want to write about a show I don't like.

Back in 2007 - when I was sixteen years old - there was a lot of buzz about a show called Avatar: The Last Airbender. Many held it up to be the greatest animated series ever made, a stunning example of the sophisticated stories animation could tell and a rebuke to the idea that children's entertainment was necessarily childish. I put on the first episode, then turned it off in about ten or fifteen minutes because I found it boring and childish.

Over the next decade and a half, the show remained a spectre over my media discussion. A lot of people I liked and respected (as well as quite a few I didn't) still spoke of it as a favourite, dissecting its themes and qualities; in particular, Zuko's character arc, considered by many to be the greatest redemption arc ever written.

At the same time, my writing in media grew more sophisticated; I have written at length about my favourite works and studied storytelling across a variety of mediums and genres. I've written in-depth, episode-by-episode analyses of some of my favourite shows and found the experience very rewarding; learning not just about how they worked, the storytelling techniques they used and the philosophies they conveyed, but my own values and aesthetic tastes.

A couple of years ago, I decided to give Avatar another shot and find out not only what people saw in it, but unique insights I could pull out of it. To my great shock, I fucking hated it. In fact, not only did I find it mostly tedious, I found parts of it morally vile. Most of the show has the same naivete as almost every other piece of children's media ever made, but parts of it struck me as terrible lessons to teach children about trying to do good in this world.

So why write about it now, here, in this format? Generally I don't go in for making snark or roasts or whatever you want to call it. I was a big fan of reading it early in my media literacy studies - I treasure a Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows snark blog I read over a decade ago that has sadly been wiped from the internet - but for the most part I've found it more rewarding to discuss things I like, if only because I would like to imitate what they do.

But I also believe in exposing myself to new ideas, even ones I might find offensive; some of my favourite works have been ones I initially thought looked abhorrent but gave a shot based on recommendations. I have also learned from things I disliked and found things to imitate. Aside from both its spectacular aesthetic and its belief in faithfully depicting POC cultures in a genre that was overwhelmingly white and Western, Avatar: The Last Airbender is so drastically different from my own storytelling and moral values that I figure it's worth a deep dive to see how it ticks.

As for why I share this publicly? I genuinely don't want to hurt anybody's feelings over a children's cartoon. If me criticising A:TLA upsets you, block me - I won't be offended. But I'm obviously going to get pushback, which is exactly what I want; I want to know how my ideas sound outside my head, particularly to someone who doesn't share my values. I want to interrogate this show, and I want to interrogate responses to my criticisms.

Anyway, this episode.

I think this does work pretty effectively at introducing us to the premise - Katara wakes Aang up, he's been in the ice for a hundred years, Zuko is after him, Aang wants to Katara to be trained in waterbending (I also think the iconic opening sequence is admittedly pretty cool and sets up the overall world well). It's a bit slow for my tastes, but I read James Ellroy novels, so I usually have to find myself tolerating slowness.

But we're already presented with a few recurring annoyances that will carry us across the series. The first: Sokka isn't funny. He's annoying, he's very very annoying. This almost works for me in his very first scene, because it serves a very particular purpose: conveying that Katara is a talented but inexpert waterbender whose talents aren't properly recognised or understood.

It's the way it's presented with a complete lack of nuance that bothers me. I don't mean moral nuance - I'm okay with completely disagreeing with Sokka in this moment - I mean a lack of comedic nuance. Sokka's sexism is presented so broadly and so generically that it's hard for me to find it funny.

I invite you to compare jokes about his sexism to similarly themed jokes in Futurama (finishing its iconic first run roughly two years before A:TLA began), in which the predictability of the jokes was compensated for by both the originality of their imagery and the speed of the jokes - setup, punchline, boom, move onto the next joke. That particular sequence ends up saying a lot about how men can be more caught up in flash than substance - social commentary rooted in the characters.

You can also compare it to the jokes about sexism in It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (which would begin its first season shortly before A:TLA), where I would argue they're equally as broad but contextualised by absurdist farce plots; the characters immediately escalate things with one another and push a scene from basic sexism to somewhere particularly absurd.

Neither of these things are present in the humour of A:TLA, and you get a lot of comedy scenes - even within this one episode - that are shallow enough to be predictable and slow enough for that to be excruciating. Jack De Sana's voice acting makes it even worse for me - he's so hammy that he comes off less like an idiot and more like a guy who desperately wants you to think he's an idiot.

For a positive example of what he's going for where that approach works, think of Rik Mayall on The Young Ones; not only does his flailing, desperate approach fit the desperate, needy character, he's supported by writing rooted in a very specific time and place, where Rick's neediness comes partially from him growing up in middle-class Britain and projecting anarchist causes onto childish concerns. Sokka's humour, despite the beautiful specifics of Inuit culture in the animation, is much more generic. The fact that he's dumb says nothing.

There are a few things I like in "The Boy In The Ice". This kicks off the fact that Zuko is miles more interesting than everyone else; I actually like Katara and Aang in theory, because both of them have the broad goals of being good people and very different, specific ways of trying to achieve that. But Zuko marries a broad goal - being the strongest guy in the room - married with a very clear, specific goal of Catching The Avatar.

Good storytelling is the easiest thing in the world: somebody wants something, they act to get it, consequences come down upon them for their actions. We actually get a very simple, elegant example of that at the end of the episode - Aang wants to find out what happened to the world, he goes into a forbidden Fire Nation wrecked ship to find out, he succeeds at his goal but sets off a flare that alerts Zuko.

Zuko very quickly establishes himself as brash and loud; the ironic thing about this show's pretentions towards pacifism is that it best expressed its characters through violence. Here we see Zuko with a simple goal - defeat the enemies in training - and putting all the power he has into every shot he takes; from a storytelling perspective, it's a bit redundant; actually, if I were editing this, I'd cut things down so it was the first we see of him, and he sees Aang escape the ice while that happens.

For a show with very blunt characterisation and plot turns, it can often have very inefficient overall storytelling structure. An example where this works a little better is Aang's penguin sledding; it's not strictly necessary to the plot, but it does tell us that a) Katara isn't completely humourless, b) Aang's joy is sincere and thoughtless, and c) Aang, in fact, brings out a sense of joy in her. The penguin sledding is the most joyful part of the episode and lays the groundwork for later characterisation.

On the other hand, we have a fundamental storytelling flaw that will plague Avatar: The Last Airbender all the way to the bitter end: there is only one correct direction for the plot to go, one character knows this and we are simply waiting for things to inevitably go their way. In this case, we have Katara being the only one to believe Aang can teach her waterbending and her grandmother telling her not to get her hopes up.

Now it doesn't seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but it's the start of a recurring pattern of everyone else being Dumb and Wrong, sometimes because the deck is very obviously stacked in their favour - like here, where Aang has very obviously been subjected to some kind of supernatural influence, as well as the fact that he's very obviously the Avatar to any viewer even slightly paying attention at this point - or based on sheer intuition.

On one level, it bothers me because it says that bad things happen because everyone is dumber than you are, which is a terrible and arrogant attitude that makes the world worse and destroys empathy. More importantly, it saps all the tension and excitement for the story; we are effectively told what's about to happen before it happens. Where's the fun in that?

In fact, you can kind of tie these two things - obvious humour and predictable plotting - into one problem: it exists to tell the audience how smart they already are, and worse, the audience doesn't actually have to be that smart to get it. I don't watch television to be told how smart I already am. I don't need TV to flatter or condescend to me.

SCATTERED NOTES

In terms of humour, we've also got the start of one of the weirder elements in a show about trying to do good: Sokka being humiliated, constantly, for no reason. Again, you can compare it to Futurama, which has Zoidberg serve a similar purpose, and in fact suffers above and beyond what he really deserves. Futurama, of course, is a dirtbag show about dirtbags (and I love it for that), so there's no weird hypocrisy there. Here it's apparently heroic to continuously bully a guy to the point that the universe itself does it.

The animation is undeniably gorgeous. The blend of different cultures into a specific and fictional cultural context is the most effective element of the show. Ships marooned on land are inherently cool, and I always loved Aang's tattoos. There's a specificity here that's lacking in the actual story.

I'll be putting these up every Saturday.

[sarah-dipitous]

Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2023 Day 278

Twigs & Twine & Tasha Banes

Hahahahahaaaaaaa I was supposed to reconfigure the schedule todayyyyy. Guess what my sick ass did? Did you guess nap for several hours? And then scroll through tiktok for too long? (I do not need to be productive when I’m not feeling well and especially when I already have the time off) Maybe tomorrow you’ll get two episodes out of me

“Twigs & Twine & Tasha Banes”

Plot Description: the Winchesters help twin-sibling hunters look for their mother, who went missing while hunting a witch. Mary grows suspicious of the Men of Letters

I can’t believe the preview started with “dad’s on a hunting trip and I haven’t heard from him in a couple days” that’s season one episode one

Would I Survive the First Five Minutes??: I think what keeps me safest here is not breaking and entering. But I am sad to see this character we’ve had for only a few minutes die…this might be the first time

Whether or not that was fully Castiel that said he has faith in Lucifer’s kid, I love how certain Dean is that it wasn’t him

Oh man. I can’t believe Sam hit him with “their mom’s on a hunting trip and hasn’t been home in a week”

I’m so glad this season is almost over…I’m hedging my bet we basically don’t see the BMoL after this

Interesting that Sam won’t divulge that Mary was brought back by god’s sister to this other hunter whose mom is a witch

See, that guy coming out of the cellar is TOO sus

Wait wait wait, I distinctly recall seeing Tasha get stabbed through the gut. How is she back???

I’m actually more suspicious of the friendly front desk worker…just as part of the genre. The unfriendly older lady who pre-accused Tasha of wanting to steal her ring is also a tad too obvious, but she’s not off the list

Oh. I don’t like that her joints will just DO that.

Ketch keeping up the charade that Mick is still alive is certainly a choice, but I do like Mary standing her ground that she and Ketch only fuck that one time (I hope that lasts)

Ugh, I hate when I’m on the computer and someone decides they’re just gonna linger behind me. Like….can I do anything in peace??

Oh. Maybe I shouldn’t have overlooked the unfriendly older lady…maybe it’s everyone at this place that’s creepy

Istg if we see Tasha’s corpse in this cellar….

I’m not saying Tasha’s a perfect parent but why couldn’t the boys have had someone more like her growing up?

Ok ok ok ok I was not wrong…sort of. I don’t know what’s going on but I knew something was up with the front desk guy and it turns out he is also a victim of unfriendly older lady

Oh, Max. I wish you hadn’t come down here…I mean, you were gonna find out sooner or later but idk that you needed to see what happened to your mom NOW

I hate the dossiers they have on all the hunters

Yeah, they’re never gonna fuck again. Good. You really think she’s gonna play nice and fall in line while you are an active threat to her sons????

YESSSSS MARYYYYYYYYYY PUNCH HIM IN THE JUNK WITH BRASS KNUCKLES!!!! AND THE FACE

Fuck Ketch. I hate that he hit her with the taser

You didn’t actually give her a deal, you just stabbed her through the gut, ripped out her heart

I was about to say that this lady feels a lot like Hama from a:tla but Hama was way more justified. This lady just sucks

Oh, Max. I will understand if you take the deal, but I really hope you don’t.

Nooooooo, not Alicia!!!

Max, don’t do it. Thank god Dean shot the older lady witch

Poor Max. Lost his mom twice in one day and then also his twin sister. He’s all alone now 🥺 I want to think he’ll do the right thing but he’s in so much pain…

Oh god, Max, baby, what are you doing?? Yeah, he wasn’t gonna NOT resurrect his sister

Ah FUCK. The lady from the beginning of the season is back? The one who tortured Sam is now here to interrogate Mary?

[agirlunderarock]

1, 3, 8, & 13 from the choose violence game for A:tla

Thank you for the ask!

the character everyone gets wrong

Honestly I don't participate much in atla fandom or read the fanfics enough to know. Like I know what kind of portrayals I strongly dislike from like my olden days of cruising through the fandom. I really hated when people just made Katara straight up mean. Girl isn't mean, she's fucking stressed lol. I REALLY didn't like that after Voltron fell apart, people rushed over to atla again, and Sokka became like stupid. I HATED THAT. He's literally the brains of the operation. His he a little anal, and silly and cracking jokes? Yeah, but he's not stupid, kid literally planned the invasion of the firenation. Nobody would have followed through on it if they didn't think he was smart enough to come up with an effective plan. Smart people say and do stupid things sometimes, like- it was people projecting the reduced part of Lance onto Sokka, and like it was a bad time for both of them.

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

I don't take screen shots of takes I dislike lol, that sounds like torture. I rarely see a take I dislike, if only because I rarely go looking for atla things except from a few people and I like their takes. I know I've seen a couple of takes about Aang that were absolutely rancid, but like I moved on because why would I do that to myself?

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Zutara is a superior ship. It would seem like that ship would be right up my alley, it is not and I don't like it, and really its just that I don't like the way some parts of the fandom do enemies to lovers. I also don't like the idea of Katara becoming the ruler of a nation that nearly destroyed her people. Do I think some of the fan art is amazing as hell? ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY do I like the ship though? no but its just not someting I'm going to advertise.

13.worst blorboficiation

I'm not sure how to answer that one....like worst way a character became a favorite? That might bring me back to Sokka as stated above. Otherwise you're probably looking for my thoughts on the thing we all kinda collectively gloss over about Iroh, but that was already answered in another post.

[orlissa]

✏️ The first fanfiction you ever wrote? (doesn’t have to be a posted fic)

👀 What’s an idea you had for a fic that you never did anything with?

👌🏻 The fic that took the fastest to write?

✏️ The first fanfiction you ever wrote? (doesn’t have to be a posted fic) It was an overly mushy, no plot, just fluff, totally out of character Harmony (Harry Potter) one-shot. In my defense, I was 12. (Funny enough, it was originally in Hungarian, then a couple of years later I translated it to English, and people actually liked it? The why is beyond me.)

👀 What’s an idea you had for a fic that you never did anything with? There have been several, but I once outlined a How to Train Your Dragon fic that dealt with Snotlout getting over his feelings of inedequacy in the wake of Hiccup's rise to esteem, and fidning his face in the world independently of his father's expectation. On a conceptual level, it would have been a story of maturation similar like to my A:tLA story, Through Wide, Grey Eyes

👌🏻 The fic that took the fastest to write? Pff... last summer I had some relatively long (3-4K words) SaB one-short, like Thicker Than Water, that took like 36 hours to write from conception of the idea till publication.

[crowreys-wormstache]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar) Characters: Katara (Avatar), Zuko (Avatar) Additional Tags: Friends With Benefits, Falling In Love, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, pillowtalk, of sorts, Love Confessions, Fluff Summary:

The first time Katara noticed the butterflies, she had simply dismissed them as just adrenaline. The second time she chose to ignore those feelings. There was no way they were real. She found an excuse the third time too. It was the coronation. He was in fancy, fitting attire and it looked undeniably good on him. She was still skeptical after they first slept together. Surely this was just fun to him. Not that he wanted to hurt her, but surely he didn’t reciprocate.

But she can’t keep this up forever.

[writings-of-a-daphodil]

Homesick

Zuko x reader

Summary: You are feeling really homesick and Zuko tries to help you feel better. Super Fluffy!

Requested?: Nope

Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender

A/n: This is my first Avatar: The Last Airbender fic, I hope y'all enjoy it!!!

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Zuko asked, giving you a hug from behind. You smiled at your reflection in the turtle duck pond, but your smile faded quickly.

   “I just miss home,” you muttered.

   It had been a few years since you and your friends had ended the war and you hadn’t been back to the Northern Watertribe in forever. You just never had the time and you were always so busy. Of course you loved the Fire Nation and Zuko, but you really missed the snow.

“I’m sorry,” Zuko apologized.

You smiled sadly. “It’s not your fault.”

“Maybe we can plan something?” Zuko offered and your smile came back.

“I’d like that,” you said, leaning into him.

Unbeknownst to you Zuko had already noticed your homesickness. He had noticed how you were eating a ton of Watertribe dishes and how you would wake up super early just to be able to water bend under the moon. He had also noticed how many hawks you and Katara were sending each other. So, he had sent a hawk of his own.

~~~~

“Katara! Aang! What are you doing here?!” You asked, helping the couple down from Appa.

“Zuko asked us to visit,” Sokka explained, sliding off Appa.

“Really?!” You exclaimed, giving your husband a tight hug.

Zuko smiled at you and you gave him a quick kiss. “So what do you guys want to do?” You asked, turning back to your friends.

“Why don’t we explore the city?” Katara suggested.

You nodded. “That sounds like a great idea.”

“Well, there’s only so much time in a day, so let's get moving people,” Sokka prompted, leading you out of the palace.

The rest of the day was wonderful, you went shopping and for lunch had a picnic outside the city on the mountains that surrounded your home. After that the rest of the day was spent swimming.

You laughed as Sokka jumped in, splashing everyone.

“Oh, you're on!” Katara yelled. The two of you began bending and a wave splashed down on Sokka.

“No fair,” Sokka pouted while you and Katara giggled. Sokka turned to Zuko and Aang. “A little help here?”

Zuko shrugged. “What do you want me to do? I’m a fire bender.”

“Aang?” Sokka begged.

“Y/n and Katara are masters, I don’t know if I want to get on their bad side.”

Katara smiled. “Wise choice.”

“Fine, fine. I give up,” Sokka said, slowly sinking underwater. You glanced at Katara and the two of you burst out laughing.

“Surfing?” You suggest and she nodded. The two of you swam back to the beach and created ice boards. Then the two of you jumped into the waves you had created.

~~Zuko’s POV~~

It made Zuko happy to see you enjoying yourself. You had spent a lot more time with the group than him and he could easily see how happy you were to see your friends.

He watched you and Katara made waves and surfed them. The smile on your face was contagious and so Zuko found himself smiling as well.

He only watched for a little longer before getting up. He had work to do. Getting the Gaang to come was only part of your surprise and he had to prepare the other.

Just thinking about how happy it would make you made him giddy. He could only imagine how excited you were going to be when you saw the other half of your surprise.

~~Your POV~~

When you saw Zuko leave, you were a little sad, but you understood he had Fire Lord stuff to work on. Even when he took the day off there was still work to do. You loved how dedicated he was to fixing the Fire Nation.

After surfing you and Katara went to help Suki build a sand castle. Of course sand castle building became a contest. You, Katara, Toph, and Suki versus Sokka and Aang.

“You know I don’t think four versus two is all that fair,” Aang said as you were putting the finishing touches on your to scale statues of the Gaang

You looked over to see their scale replica of Appa. It wasn’t as detailed as yours, but you could see the work they put into it. Aang had even added a little Momo.

“Yeah, you have Toph and one of our team members is missing,” Sokka pointed out and you realized that Zuko still hadn’t come back.

“Speaking of Zuko maybe we should go looking for him,” you suggested.

Sokka stood up and brushed the sand off himself. “Yeah, he can be the judge, though it’s pretty obvious who won.” Just as he said that the sand Momo fell off and Sokka rushed to fix it.

You giggled. “It’s getting late anyways.”

The six of you made your way to the palace and you changed out of your swimsuit. After, you sent someone to find Zuko while you and the rest of your friends went to the dining room.

You all sat down and began to chat. Aang talked a lot about how he and Zuko were planning on making a city that didn’t have one nation attached to it. Sokka and Katara talked about the rebuilding of the Southern Watertribe. It was so exciting to hear what your friends were doing.

“Sorry I’m late,” Zuko said, rushing into the dining room. He kissed your forehead before sitting down.

“Is everything alright?” You asked.  

He smiled brightly. “Everything’s perfect.”

Satisfied with that answer you all began to eat and soon enough it was over.

“Let’s walk down to the beach to see the sand sculptures,” Sokka suggested and you smiled.

“Sure and after that why don’t we show you the turtle ducks?” You suggested. “There are some turtle ducklings now.”

“Aww!” Katara and Suki exclaimed. You all walked down to the beach and watched the sunset. There was nothing quite like the sunset in the Firenation. Reds, pinks, yellows, and oranges were painted across the sky. It was one of the things you loved most about the Fire Nation, besides Zuko of course.

The sun was making its last attempt at light when you arrived at the beach only to see the tide had taken your sculptures.

Sokka pouted a little and Suki consoled him. “Well, I’m sure they were beautiful,” Zuko said and you beamed at him.

“Let’s go see the turtle-ducks now,” you said, grabbing Zuko’s hand.

The stars were out as you all sat down on blankets. You hugged Zuko knowing that he had probably sent the blankets out here earlier. He knew one of your favorite things to do was to sit under the stars by the turtle duck-pond.

It was just like old times as you talked. Though of course you didn’t have the threat of imminent danger over your head.

You couldn't believe how wonderful the day had been and the gaang was staying for a week so Aang and Zuko could plan for their city. You were excited to get to spend so much time with your friends. You didn’t know how the week could get any better.

You laughed with your friends as Zuko stood up and went to talk to a guard. You assumed he was requesting food or something, but you were very surprised when a polar bear puppy came running at you. It jumped into your arms and began to lick you.

You looked to Zuko, confused. “What’s going on?”

“Surprise!” He yelled and you suddenly understood what was going on.

You held the puppy in one arm and squeezed Zuko with the other. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” You exclaimed. You set the puppy in your lap and began to stroke him.

Zuko chuckled. “I’m glad you like him. I noticed how sad you were and when I decided to ask everyone to come, I asked Katara to bring him.”

“You guys! I’m gonna cry!” You sniffed, but you were smiling brightly.

“What are you going to name him?” Katara asked and you began to examine the puppy.

You watched as he tumbled out of your lap and padded over to the turtle ducks. For a second you thought he would jump in with the ducklings, but he settled for admiring them.

One came over to him and you went to grab him before the mother could get mad, but she seemed to take a liking to your puppy. It was a cute sight watching them interact.

“What about Turtle Duck?” Sokka suggested.

“What kind of name is Turtle duck?” Katara asked.

You smiled. “Actually, I kinda like it. We can call him Turtle for short.

“Aww! Hello Turtle,” Aang cooed as he stroked Turtle’s ears.

You turned to Zuko. “Thank you so much. This means the world to me.”

“I’m glad, it’s great to see you so happy.” Zuko put an arm around your shoulder and the two of you looked down at the bundle of joy that was now squirming in your lap.

Turtle yawned and curled up into your lap. You and Zuko both stroked him as you spent the rest of the night, enjoying yourselves with your friends.

****

Tada! I really enjoyed writing this and I hope y'all liked it. I hope y'all have a beautiful and safe day/night.

P.S. I am open to requests, but it'll take me a week or two to get to them :) Please check my blog for the pinned post before requesting.

P.P.S. if you want to be on my taglist for all things Avatar: The Last Airbender, feel free to ask. I hope it works and please message me if it doesn’t.

[cobraonthecob]

me: i’m going to do my chem homework!

someone in the tags: *failed basic Internet etiquette*

me: time to write some fluffy Zutara!

[my-personal-bookclub]

Insomnia and Orange Juice (18+)

Or “Omg they were bedmates ft. a little porn” by snowandfire on Ao3

“When’s the last time you slept?”

“I don’t know. 1998?”

“Dude. You were three.”

“I don’t need sleep, Sokka. I need answers!”

OR: Zuko can't sleep until Sokka's in bed with him. Sokka has no idea why. But eventually, he figures it out.

MY SUMMARY

Zuko’s asshole dad gives him impossible “assignments” every few months and almost kills himself trying to figure them out and get his father’s approval. He doesn’t eat, he doesn’t sleep, he just researches scientific paradoxes until he physically breaks down. Until one day, Sokka sees him drink Orange Juice straight out of the container and decides he must stop this sleep deprived fiend that is his roommate. He goes with the most logical conclusion and stays in his room all night, and eventually in his bed all night. (Both of them are SO oblivious and SO dumb, but not stupid) 

MY THOUGHTS (kinda spoilers but out of context) BELOW THE CUT

I love this. I think the whole “Zuko literally offers to give Sokka a blowjob (and does) then they pretend it doesn’t happen” is so fucking funny. like imagine??? They have half a brain cell combined i swear. Sokka’s like idk if he likes me we’ve only had sex once and we cuddle every night!!! I love my dumbass sons. Also? Sokka going on several dates and prepping to have sex with this chick, then randomly being like “no i can’t my best bro needs me to sleep!” and kissing him? genius, I think Sokka had like 2 whole brain cells in that moment what a fucking chad

[kyroshorcrux]

𝐀:𝐓𝐋𝐀 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓.

❪ ♡ — fluff ; ☂︎ — angst ⠀❫

─┈ 𝐙𝐔𝐊𝐎.

─┈ 𝐊𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐀.

─┈ 𝐒𝐔𝐊𝐈.

─┈ 𝐒𝐎𝐊𝐊𝐀.

─┈ 𝐀𝐀𝐍𝐆.

kyroshorcrux © 2021: all content belongs to kyroshorcrux unless otherwise specified. i do not allow reposts or translations.